Introduction -
The prehistoric discovery that certain plants cause harm and others have curative powers is the origin of the healing professions and its practitioners
(priest, physician, and apothecary), as well as professions devoted to plants (botany and horticulture). The description of plants and their properties and
virtues (termed herbals in the 16th century) became an invaluable resource for
the physician and apothecary. The earliest medico-botanical treatises date to
antiquity.

A Sumerian tablet from about 2100 BCE (before current era) contains a dozen
prescriptions and proscribes plant sources. In China, the Pen T’Sao Ching,
assumed to be authored by the legendary Emperor Shen Nung in “2700 BCE,” but
probably written in the first century, contains about 100 herbal remedies. The
Ebers Papyrus, a medical treatise from ancient Egypt dates to 1550 BCE but
contains material from 5 to 20 centuries earlier. In Greece, the great botanical
treatise Enquiry into Plants of Theophrastus, devotes book IX to the medicinal
value of herbs. The herbal De Materia Medica by Pedanios Dioscorides of Anazarba,
a Roman army physician, written in the year 65, the most famous ever written,
was slavishly referred to, copied, and commented on for 1500 years. The great
epoch of printed herbals appeared in the 16th century

Many ancient societies have a body of traditional medicine, largely based on
herbalism, that predates the invention of writing. It is not surprising that, as
they became literate, those cultures felt the urge to commit that knowledge to
writing - in the form of herbals. Before the advent of printing, herbals were
produced as manuscripts, which could be kept as scrolls or loose sheets, or
bound into codices. The European Renaissance pharmacopoeia borrows heavily from
ancient sources, particularly Galen, Dioscorides, Theophrastus and Pliny the
Elder. See separate page showing illustrations from
ancient manuscripts.

Early handwritten herbals were often illustrated with paintings and drawings.
Like other manuscript books, herbals were "published" through repeated copying
by hand, either by professional scribes or by the readers themselves. In the
process of making a copy, the copyist would often translate, expand, adapt, or
reorder the content. Most of the original herbals have been lost; many have
survived only as later copies (of copies of copies!), and many others are known
only through references from other texts. They tend to follow the same
pattern - the plant's physical appearance, smell, taste and natural
habitat, followed by a discussion on any known medicinal qualities, culinary
virtues, and then any useful products obtained from the plants roots, leaves,
seeds or flowers. Sadly colour variations (of carrot) were rarely described
until much later.

The advent of printing in the 15th century and the technology of the woodblock
print was to have an enormous influence in herbals. Printed herbals were in great
demand by physicians, the apothecary, as well as for ordinary people who needed
a source for remedies. Hand-illuminated manuscripts were too expensive to be
owned by all except nobility or clergy in wealthy monasteries. Thus, the printed
book became a source of information for the middle classes, while the focus of
inquiry and new information came out of the burgeoning universities. In the 16th
century, the age of exploration and the beginnings of scientific inquiry coupled
with the
tremendous interest in the new plants discovered in the "New Worlds" brought
about an unprecedented demand for the printed herbal.

In
Europe, the first printed herbal with woodcut (xylograph) illustrations, the
"Buch der Natur" of Konrad of Megenberg, appeared in 1475. Metal-engraved plates
were first used in about 1580. The woodcuts and metal engravings could now be
reproduced almost indefinitely, and they were traded among printers: there was
therefore a large increase in the number of illustrations together with an
improvement in their quality and detail. This is also why one scan often see the same
illustration in different herbals.

Traditional
Herbals are compilations of information about medicinal or therapeutic plants, typically
including plant names, descriptions, and illustrations, and information on
medicinal uses. Herbals have been written for thousands of years and form an important historical record and scientific resource. Many plant medicines listed
in older herbals are still used in some form, but some herbals, especially
earlier ones, also contain much inaccurate information and plant lore.

Herbals are a particularly
interesting group in the history of written communication in that they have
always been in circulation since the antiquities and were not 'rediscovered'
during the renaissance.

Despite the faithful transcription of the manuscript text by monastic scribes,
distortions inevitably crept in as the work passed from one hand to the next.
Greater variation exists among the illustrations which were often painted
without reference to the living world. Regional variation in both plant types
and knowledge as well as differences in editorial control also contributed over
a thousand years of copying to a body of herbal manuscripts deriving from a few
ancient sources.

This all makes for a complex history but there are two lines or branches
generally identified in classifying the lineage of a herbal. Perhaps the most
important is the five volume pharmacopoeia/herbal, 'De Materia Medica'
by Dioscorides from the first century AD, which represents the Greek/Arabic tradition. This work
also supplies much of the textual origin for the other branch, the Latin
tradition - which is contained within a corpus of works by an amalgamated
author, referred to as Pseudo-Apuleius (sometimes called Apuleius Platonic, to
distinguish him or them from a number of other authors from the middle
ages called Apuleius). The original Pseudo-Apuleius Herbal was produced in about
the 5th century AD.

For most of human history, people have relied on herbalism for at least some
of their medicinal needs, and this remains true for more than half of the
world's population in the twenty-first century. Much of our modern pharmacopoeia
also has its roots in the historical knowledge of medicinal plants.

There is a very interesting presentation on line by the University of
Minnesota Library entitled "Woodcut Herbals from 1491-1633"
here.

European herbal medicine is rooted in the works of classical writers such as
Pliny the Elder who wrote Historia Naturalis (here);
and Dioscorides (here), a Greek physician and author of the first known illustrated guide
to medicinal plants whose De Materia Medica (78 C. E.) formed the basis of herbals in Europe for 1,500 years
and the most influential herbal of all time.

Then, as voyages of exploration began to bring new plants from far away
lands, European herbal authors expanded their coverage. This also led to a
heightened interest in naming and classifying plants, contributing to the
development of botanical science.

Also The Old English Herbarium (late10th C) takes its material from Pliny and
other Latin compilations and cites uses for carrot:

"The pastinaca silvatica plant which is wild carrot or parsnip -
For difficult
childbirth and
For womens cleansing -

This plant which is called pastinace silvatice or wild carrots, grows in sandy
soils and hills.

1. If a woman has difficulty in giving birth, the plant we call pastinaca
silvatica (wild carrot or parsnip), simmer it in water, and give it so that she
can bathe herself with it. She will be healed.

2. For a woman's cleansing, take the same plant, pastinaca, simmer it in water,
and when it is soft, mix it well and give it to drink. She will be cleansed."

Leech Book of Bald - The oldest surviving medical text book in
England is also the oldest herbal, for of course herbs were medicine in the
middle ages. This is the Leech Book of Bald, ( læce in Old English means healer)
compiled in Ælfred's time or very shortly thereafter by a monk named Bald, and
penned, in its surviving copy, between 924 and 946 by a scribe (almost certainly
also a monk) named Cild and possibly under the influence of Alfred the Great's
educational reforms.

The Leechbook of Bald is an Old English medical text probably compiled in the
tenth century.
It takes its name from a Latin verse colophon at the end of the second book
which begins "Bald habet hunc librum Cild quem conscribere iussit", meaning 'Bald
owns this book which he ordered Cild to compile.' The text survives in only one
manuscript in London at the British Library, Royal 12, D xvii.

Its wisdom formed the foundation of every succeeding English medical
treatise. The Saxon herbal, the Leech Book of Bald, which dates from the first
half of the 10th century, includes remedies and treatments and lots of
superstition. It contains lots of herbal remedies, charms and incantations
including many practices used by the Greeks and Romans.

The Leech Book of Bald reveals that herbs were used to protect
people from infections. Bald remains a shadowy figure from the past and his
writings suggest a time of superstition. It was believed disease occurred when
people were struck with elves' arrows. Here are some extracts from this work:

For him who hath thick eyelids, take a copper vessel, put
therein cathartic seeds and salt there among, take celandine and bishopwort
and cuckoosour and attorlothe and springwort and English carrot, and a
somewhat of radish, and ravens foot, then wash them all, then pour wine on
; let it stand, strain again into the copper vessel; then let it stand
fifteen nights and the dregs will be good. Have with thee clean curds and
introduce into the vessel on which the dregs are, as much of the curd as may
cleave thereon. Then scrape the scrapings off" the vessel, that will be a
very good salve for the man who hath thick eyelids.

For pock disease, (smallpox)' use " onred," houseleek, the
netherpart of it, fieldmore, the nether part of it; of "onred"
an equal quantity, and of the two others by half less
of the fieldmore or carrot than of the houseleek,
pound them thoroughly together, add so
much clear ale as may
mount above the worts ; let them stand three nights, administer in the morning a cup full.

For the "dry" pain (atrophy or consumption);
make into a
drink, alexanders, sedum, wormwood, the two kneeholns,-
sage, savine, carrot, lovage, feverfue, marche, costmary,
garlic, aslithroat, betony, bishopwort,
work them up
into double brewed ale, sweeten with honey, drink
for nine mornings no other liquid ; drink afterwards a
strong potion, and let blood.

It also recommended a broth of carrot (or mint) to
cure a hiccup which came from having a chill.

The fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries were the great age of
herbals, many of them available for the first time in English and other
languages, rather than Latin or Greek.

1166 - Mattheau Platearius of Naples wrote Circa Instans
a twelfth-century manuscript originating at Europe’s first
medical school at Salerno, a loose translation of Dioscorides work
describing 273 simple herbs used in the medical school in Salerno. Circa Instans
is probably the most important work of botanical medicine of the Middle Ages as
it contributed to a better understanding of unknown plants also identified each
of them alphabetically showing geographical origin and variety, giving the names
in
Greek, Latin and often the vulgar too. The Circa Instans strongly
influenced the Grand Herbier of Paris (1520) and was subsequently translated and
printed into English as the Grete Herball in 1526

Although these early printed herbals undoubtedly revolutionised the
dissemination of knowledge about medicinal plants, their illustrations were
often
crude and inaccurate, being based upon images repeatedly copied out from
manuscripts from generation to generation, errors and all. They are of limited
use for
identification purposes and different plants were often depicted by repeated use of
the same woodcuts, while the descriptions of the properties of the herbs tended
to mix genuine Discoridean tradition with local folk lore and the pure
imagination!.

The Sixteenth Century was the century of great herbals. The serious
study of herbalism flourished as never before, resulting in the production of a
plethora of works based upon field work and scientific fact.

Here are some of the references to the uses of carrots (wild and domesticated)
in herbal works dating from the14th century.

Henry Daniel (1315 approx - 1385) was
an English physician of the mid 14th century and a pioneer in
the fields of botanical observation, ecology and the cultivation of exotic
plants. Although little is known of Daniel's life, a good deal can
be deduced from his surviving works, which include translations of medical
treatises from the Latin and the extensive herbal De re Herbaria (1375). He must originally have been comparatively well-to-do, but later
became poor and joined the Dominican Order. It was probably after entering
religion that he was able to get access to the many authorities which he
consulted in the compilation of his herbal.

Friar Henry Daniel was an outstanding field naturalist, botanist and skilled
gardener, who spent seven years training as a physician before becoming a
Dominican Friar. He grew 252 plants in his garden at Stepney (London) and wrote
many treatises on gardening and in particular herbs native to Britain, including
detailed descriptions of soil and climates.
Daniel was a scholar of distinction. He sought out works which, in many cases,
must have been rare in English libraries, and his surviving translations are
correct, clear, and forcibly expressed. His garden at Stepney may well have been
the earliest deliberate collection planned on a large scale in the British
Isles, and certainly contained many more species than would have been present in
the herbarium of a monastic infirmary

In the botanical habitats for plants named by Daniel were - "Carrots - growing in dry places, and in meers."

The Forme Of Cury - 1390 - A Roll of Ancient
English Cookery. (printed and edited by Samuel Pegge in 1785, who deduced that Pasturnakes
was taken to mean Parsnips or Carrots, from Pastinaca.) (Cury means
cookery)

Compiled, by the Master-Cooks of King RICHARD II, Presented afterwards to
Queen ELIZABETH, by EDWARD Lord STAFFORD.

Two recipes containing "Pasturnakes" are given in this very early work.

"RAPES [1] IN POTAGE. V.

Take rapus and make hem clene and waissh hem clene. quare hem . parboile
hem. take hem up. cast hem in a gode broth and see hem. mynce Oynouns and cast
erto Safroun and salt and messe it forth with powdour douce. the wise [3] make
of Pasturnakes and skyrwates.

[1] Rapes, or rapus. Turneps. [2] quare hem. Cut them in _squares_, or small
pieces. V. Gloss. [3] in the wise, _i.e._ in the same manner. _Self_ or _same_,
seems to be casually omitted. Vide No. 11 and 122. [4] Pasturnakes, for parsnips
or carrots. Gloss. skyrwates, for skirrits or skirwicks."

Take skyrwate and pasternakes and apples, & parboile hem, make a batour of
flour and ayrenn, cast pto ale. safroun & salt. wete hem in de batour and frye
hem in oile or in grece. do pto Almaund Mylk. & serve it forth."

The Hortus Sanitatis 1491 or the Ortus Sanitatis (the
origin of health), as it is also known, is in the tradition of the medieval
herbals and shows one of the earliest illustrations of the Carrot (shown right).

It is partly based on Der Gart der Gesundheit (Garden of
Health), which is sometimes attributed to Johann von Cube, and was originally
printed by Peter Schoeffer at Mainz in 1485. However, it should be regarded as a
separate work as it covered nearly a hundred more medicinal plants than the
Gart der Gesundheit and also included extensive sections on animals, birds,
fish and minerals, as well as a treatise on urine. The authorship of this
lavishly illustrated herbal is unknown but it is generally believed to have been
compiled by its printer, Jacob Meydenbach. It was first printed in in
Mainz and is therefore the last major medical work to cover medicines from the
Old World only.

Grete Herbal 1526 - One of the most reputed English Herbals, it was nevertheless a translation
from the French, namely from the work known as ' Le Grant Herbier,' and shows
some indebtedness to the Ortus Sanitatis. Other sources say it is derived from the
Codex Bruxellensis iv MS 1024 and became the basis of all English herbals of the
16th century. Daucus Cretensis (wild carrot) is depicted in a drawing in the
original manuscript. (below - image from Wellcome Library collection,
subject to copyright).

"De Dauco Dawke - Daucus Dawke is hote and drye in the third degree, it is a
comyn herbe, and hath a large floure and in the middle thereof a lytel redprciks.

Vertue is in the floure and the herbe, for its rote is nought, it ought to be
gadzed (gathered?) what it bereth floures.

The rote must be hanged in shadowed place to dye. It kepeth good one yere. It
hath vertue to sprede to waste and to dysmyss the humours by the quallytees, and
hath vertue dyurytyke (duiretic) by the subtylyte of the substaunce.

For the brethe - Against lettynge of the brethe caused of colde humours and
colde cough take drynke that this herbe a drye sygges is sobe in agaynst poose
or cold cewme bynde powder of this herbe to ye heed in a bagge.

For the Stomake Agaynst paine of the stomacke caused of wynde. Agaynst stoppage
of urine as stranguary and dyssury and agaynst ache of the wombe. Spue the
drynke that it is soden in. And also sethe it in wyne and oyle and lay it to the
paynfull places and for the same take the drynke that the sedes of daucus and
saxifrage is soden in.

For the Lyver - Agaynst stoppynge of ye lyver and mylt (spleen) caused of colde and agaynst
dropsy make syrope with the juice of fenell and the decoccyon of this herbe for
the same put this herbe in wyne and oyle the space of c (ten) dayes and then
sethe it with the oyle onely and wrynge the herbe and streyne it with oyle and
put ware thereto and make it playster or cyroyne. It is also good for harde
apostrumes." (abcesses)

Image scanned from the Grete Herball

Image shows an early German drawing taken
from “Herbarum Imagines Vivae” printed from a copy of the original 1535
Frankfurt Edition belonging to the Leopold Sophien Bibliothek Uberlingen.

Rycharde
Banckes 1525

The first book printed in England, which can
really be called a herbal, is an anonymous quarto volume, without
illustrations, published in 1525. It was based on an unknown medieval
manuscript dealing with herbs. A number of editions followed with different
names.

The title-page says:

"Here begynneth a newe
mater, the whiche sheweth and treateth of ye vertues and proprytes of herbes,
the whiche is called an Herball."

"Carut

This herbe is called Carut, this herbe hath leaves somewhat like to fenel wyth a
longe stalke and a round seede more than parsnep seede.

The vertue of this herbe is to destroy evel windes and the coughe, and it is
good for the tretie and for bytinge of venemous bestes. Also this
herbe medled with allu is good for Scabbes and Teters (eruptive skin diseases
like eczema, and impetigo). Also it restoreth hair there as it is fallen
away, this herbe groweth in moyst places."

(Note there were several plagiarised versions of Banckes Herbal in this period,
notably A "Newe Herbal Translated
out of Laten in to Englysshe" known as Macers Herbal was in fact a simple re-working of Banckes
work)nter>

Image right shows an early German drawing taken from “Herbarum Imagines Vivae”
printed from a copy of the original 1535 Frankfurt Edition belonging to the
Leopold Sophien Bibliothek Uberlingen.

Leonhart Fuchs 1542 - The author of the Historia Stirpium, (On the History of Plants)
Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566), is known as the third of the German fathers of
Botany, after Otto Brunfels and Jerome Bock. In fact, Fuchs work was greatly
inspired by the Herbarum vivae icones(1530-6) of Brunfels; based upon
personal observation, Brunfels work was pioneering in dramatically changing the
quality of botanical illustration. Fuchs' great herbal, however, was conceived
on a much larger scale than the herb books of his immediate predecessors.

Like most botanical books of its time, “Fuchs’
Herbal” (as it is commonly known) consists largely
of “commentaries” on Dioscorides. His aim was to reproduce each plant from life, and he stated
in his dedicatory epistle that this was done for no other reason than that 'a
picture expresses things more surely and fixes them more deeply in the mind than
the bare words of the text'. Each illustration was therefore based upon the
appearance of the living plant; furthermore, 'we have not allowed the craftsmen
so to indulge their whims as to cause the drawing not to correspond accurately
to the truth'.

Fuchs in 1542 described, in Latin, red and yellow garden carrots and wild carrots, but
names them all Pastinaca.
Fuchs illustrates red and yellow carrots, although the red is definitely shaded
towards purple.

William Turner 1548 set out to produce reliable lists of English
plants and animals, which he published as Libellus de re herbaria.

Clergyman, physician, and naturalist, born in Morpeth, Northumberland, NE
England, UK. A fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, he became a Protestant, and
to escape religious persecution in England travelled extensively abroad,
studying medicine and botany in Italy. He is the author of the first original
English works on plants, including Names of Herbes (1548) and A New Herball
(155168), He is often called the father of English botany.

In the Names of Herbes (1548 - An index of English names, and an
identification of the plants enumerated) Turner made the following entries:

"Daucus.
There are many kyndes of Daucus after Dioscorides, three at the least, wherof I
knowe none suerly but one, whiche is called in latin pastinaca syluestris, in
english wild carot & in greeke Staphilinos agrios, for the other kindes ye may
use carawey seede, or carot seede. Some learned me not without a cause hold that
both the Saxifrages, that is the englishe, and the Italion may be occupied for
Dauco. Daucus is sharpe and heateth."

Pastinaca.
Pastinaca is called in greeke Staphilinos in englishe a Carot, in duche pasteney,
in frenche Cariottes. Carettes growe in al countreis in plentie."

A New Herball, (1551) is the first part of Turner's great work; These volumes gave the first clear, systematic survey of English plants, and with their
admirable woodcuts (mainly copied from Fuchs' 1542 De historia Stirpium) and detailed observations based on Turner's own field studies put the herbal on an
altogether higher footing than in earlier works. At the same time, however, Turner included an account of their "uses and vertues," and in his preface
admits that some will accuse him of divulging to the general public what should have been reserved for a professional audience.

Turner considered the Grete Herball (above) to be "al full of unlearned cacographes and falseye naminge of herbes". This was because the Herball was a
translation of of French Herbal (Le grant herbier) which in turn was a part reflex of a Latin Work (Circa instans) leading to discrepancies in the correct
naming of plants.

Rembert Dodoens (1517-1585)The famous Flemish physician and botanist Rembertus Dodonaeus is best known for his herbal Cruydeboeck (more
precisely: Cruijdeboeck, as the title is printed on the title page), written in old Flemish and published in 1554.
The scans shown below were made from a coloured copy, which is in the library of the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam, Holland. All wood cuts, initials of the chapters and title pages are
hand coloured, by the Dutch artist Hans Liefrinck (1520-1573). (click on image for full page version)

Yellow Carrot and Red Carrot

Wild Carrot

It was illustrated with 715 woodcuts of plants, including
many copies from those in the Fuch's herbal. Dodoens' used Fuchs as his model
for the description of each plant. The method of arrangement is his own. He
indicates the localities and times of flowering in the Low Countries,
information that could not have been derived from an earlier writer.

It is written in Latin and later translated and enhanced by Henry Lyte (below). Also much of Dodoens
work is repeated by Gerard's translation (also below).

Pastinaca Sativus Rubens

Rembert Dodoens

Pastinaca Silvetris tenuifolia

The Foure Bookes of Husbandrie, collected by Conrad Heresbach 1577 make reference to Red and Yellow
Carrots thus:

"Redde and Yellowe Carrettes - You have also in this Garden red Carrets, I
have some Yellowe Carrets. Plinie inviteth that Tiberius was so in love with
this roote, that he caused Carrets to be yeerley brought him out of Germanie,
from the Castell of Geluba standing upon the Rhine.

It delighteth in colde places, and is sowed before the kalendes of Marche, and
of some in September; but the third and the best kind of sowing as some thinke,
is in August.

There is also Wilde Carret, a kind of Parsnep. There are those
that suppose it to be the yellowe roote, that is so common in Germanie, they are
to be sowed in March. It is general that they be wello troden uppon, or kept
cut, so the end the rootes may growe the greater."
(Copy of original page here)

Henry Lyte (1529 - 1607) was an English botanist and
antiquary who published "A niewe Herball" (1578), which was a translation of the
Cruydeboeck of Rembert Dodoens (Antwerp, 1564). This herbal, or historie of plants
was subtitled "Wherein is contained the whole discourse and perfect description of all sorts of herbs
and plants." Written in old English, it is a fascinating summary of
the carrot at the time in England. Basically an English copy of Dodoens earlier
work.

He did not perhaps
add very
greatly to the knowledge of English botany, but
he did a
valuable service in introducing Dodoens'
herbal into England. He said the root of the garden carrots (compared to wild)
is more convenient and better to be eaten.

The title of Lyte's book is as follows: 'A Niewe Herball or
Historie of Plantes : wherin is contayned the whole discourse and perfect
description of all sortes of Herbes and Plantes : their divers and sundry
kindes : their straunge Figures, Fashions, and Shapes : their Names,
Natures, Operations, and Vertues : and that not onely of those which are
here growyng in this our Countrie of Englande, but of all others also of
forrayne Realmes, commonly used in Physicke. First set foorth in the
Doutche or Almaigne tongue, by that learned D. Rembert Dodoens, Physition
to the Emperour : And nowe first translated out of French into English, by
Henry Lyte Esquyer.'

Of Carrots (Chap xxxviii) (note this has been edited by
the Curator for ease of reading)

The Kinds - There be three sortes of Carrots, yealow and red whereof two be
tame of the garden, the third is wild growing of it selfe.

The Description -

1.The yealow Carrot hath dark greene leaves, all cut and hackt almost like
the leaves of Chervil, but a great deal browner, larger, stronger, and smaller
cut. The root is thicke and long, yealow both without and within and is used to
be eaten in meates.

2. The red Carrot is like to the aforesaid in the cuts of his leaves, and in
stalks, flowers and seed. The root is likewise long and thicke, but of a purple
red colour both within and without.

3. The wilde is not much unlike garden Carrot, in leaves stalks and flowers,
saving the leaves be a little rougher, and not so much cut or jagged. In the
middle of the flowry tufts amongst the white flowers groweth one or two little
purple marks or specks. The seede is rougher and the root smaller and harder
than the other Carrots.

The Place - 1 & 2 the manured or tamed Carrot is sowne in
gardens; 3 the wild groweth in the borders of fields, by high waies & paths, and
in rough untoiled places.

The Time -Carrots do flower in June and July, and their seed is ripe in
August.

He went on to describe its vertues which included, "cleaning evil blood";
"seeds to provoketh urine"; "this root hath the power to increase love".

The roots made into powder helped the "liver, spleen, kidnies and guarded
against gravel".

Wild Carrot provoketh womens flowers, and drunk with wine helped in
childbirth. It also good against venom and the bitings & stings of venomous
beasts.

The greene leaves of Carrots "boiled with honey and laid to, do cleanse and
mundifie (purify) uncleane and fretting sores" (- a type of poultice)

W Langham 1579 Garden of Health : containing the sundry rare and hidden vertues and
properties of all kindes of Simples and Plants. Together with the
manner how they are to bee used and applyed in medicine for the health of mans
body, against diuers diseases and infirmities most common amongst men. Gathered
by the long experience and industry of William Langham, Here is the
transcription of his work on carrots: (extract
from original here)

Carrots:

1. mother drink one spoonful of the juice of the roots of wild
carrots, with a little drink, apply the drosse (sediment or dregs) to the
private place 2 Sodden tenderly in meat, they are pleasant and holsome,
they nourish well, warm all the inner parts being eaten moderately.

4. The seeds of wild carrots drunk or applied to the matrix,
bringeth down flowers (menstruation) it provoketh wine being drunk and is
good against all venemous bitings and stingings.

5. He that taketh it aforehand, shall not be bitten by serpents: it
is good for conception

6. the root drieth out wine, and provoketh venery.

7 And laid to the convenient place, it bringeth forth the child that
sticketh in the birth.

8 The Garden Carrots hath the same virtues but not so strong but yet
more fit for meat provoketh venery.

9 The roots especially of the wild carrot provoke urine, taken in
any sort, and createth love.

10 the powder thereof drunk with honied water openeth the stoppings
of the liver, milt and kidneys and is good for the gravel and the
jaundice.

11 The seed of wild provoketh termes (menstrual blood), helpeth the
suffocation of the mother; being drunk in wine, or used in pessaries, it
provoketh urine, casteth out gravel, and is good for stranguary and
dropsie, and for the pain of the sides, belly and reines (?), against all
venome and venomous bitings.

12 The seeds of garden carrots have like virtues but not so strong.
13 the seeds especially of the wild sodden in wine draweth down the termes
(menstrual blood), and urine and water of the dropsie. 14 the root used in
meats is good against the droppings of urine, it may be kept in vinegar as
other roots. 15 The seed, herb, or root sodden and applied bringeth downe
the dead birth, the seconds and the flowers 16 and stamped with honey and
applied it is good against the pockes (pox), kankers and fretting sores,
which eat the flesh and skin. 17 the seed sodden in wine helpeth the
cholic, and wind in the stomach and the hyckit (hiccup?)

John Gerard's Herball - The Historie of Plants
1597 - this is largely a straight translation of Dodoen's work.

The original Generall Historie of Plantes of 1597 containing the description,
times, places, nature and vertues of all sorts
of Herbs for meate, medicine, or sweet smelling use.

John Gerard’s “Herbal or General History of Plants” has long been
considered one of the most famous of English herbals. First published in
1597, it was republished in 1633 revised and enlarged by Thomas Johnson in an
edition that retained much of the original Elizabethan text. The 1633
edition contains some 2850 descriptions of plants and about 2700 illustrations.

Stinking and Deadly Carrots - both the plant Thapsia, a relative
of carrots

It relies heavily on previously published texts, most notably plagiarising a
translation Dodoens' Latin Herbal of 1583 (see above). Gerard added 182
new plants and appended some of his own observations. The work is a valuable
source fro the culinary historian, not only to prove certain plants were known
at this time, but also to see how they were used.

"Of Carrots - Chap 390

There are two kinds of Pastinaca with jagged leaves, called in English,
Carrots, and of those with jagged narrow leaves on is wilde.

The roote is long thicke and single, of a faire yellow colour, pleasant to be
eaten, and very sweete in taste. There are to be sowen in April; they
bring foorth their flowers and seeds the yeere after they be sowen.

There is another kinde hereof like to be the former in all partes, and
differeth from it onely in the colour of the roote, which in this is not
yellow, but of a blackish red colour.

The roote of the yellow Carrot is most commonly boiled with fat flesh and
eaten. The nourishment therof is not much, and not verie good.; it is something
windie, but not so much as Turneps, and doth so soone as they passe through the
bodies. It doth breaketh and consumeth windinesse, provoketh urine, as
doth the wilde Carrot.

"Of Wilde Carrot - Chap 391 - It groweth in untoiled places, flowers in June and July and the seede is ripe
in August.

The seede of this wilde Carrot, and likewise, the root is hot and drie in the
second degree, and doth withall open. The roote boiled and eaten, or boiled with
wine, and the decooction drunke, provoketh urine, expelleth the stone, bringeth
foorth the birth; it also procureth bodily lust."

He also describes it a good for wind, cholic, dropsie; helping with the passions
of the mother, helping conception and good against the bites of venomous beasts!
Full text here. Page 1Page 2

"to which are now first added,
upwards of One Hundred additional Herbs, with a display of their medicinal and
occult properties, physically applied to the Cure and Disorders incident to
Mankind." (1653)

Culpepper describes how the carrot in various decoctions (mainly boiled in wine
or urine!) also help dropsy, wind, liver disease, fits, the lungs, shortness of
breath, stitches in the side, eye diseases, consumption, cholic, kidney stones,
evil blood, bodily sores.

It also deals with the bitings of venomous worms (snakes?) and
serpents and creeping beasts. It could also cure sore paps and teats (nipples).

"Wild Carrots belong to Mercury and therefore break wind, and remove
stitches from the sides, provoke urine and womens courses and helpeth to break
and expel the stone; the seed is good for the dropsy and those whose bellies are
swollen with the wind; helpeth the stone in the kidney; and rising of the
mother; being taken in wine or boiled in wine and taken helpeth conception."

"Garden Carrots are so well known that they need no description, but because
they are less physical use than the wild kind I shall describe the wild carrot.
The wild is more effectual in physic as being more powerful in their operation,
than the garden kind."

"To sum up it helpeth the body inwardly and outwardly; it strengthens almost all
the principal members of the body, as the brain, the heart, the stomach, the
liver, the lungs and the kidneys. It is also a preservative against all diseases
for it provoketh sweat by which the body is purged of much corruption which
breedeth disease."

Carrots - It is excellent for the head, and the parts thereof; this herb being
eat, or the powder or juice drank, keepeth a person from the head ach and megrum,
and also driveth it away. Being taken in meat of drink, it is good against
dizziness and swimming giddiness of the head. It comforteth the brain,
sharpeneth the wit, and strengthen the memory; it is a singular remedy
against deafness, for it amendeth the thickness of the hearing, and provoketh
sleep.

The juice of it laid to the eyes, quickeneth the sight, also the water in which
the powder, or herb dried, is steeped, hath the same effect if the eyes be
washed therewith; the herb eaten, is good for the same purpose. the water or
juice dropped into the eyes, cureth the redness, bloodshotten, and itching of
them.

Some write that is strengthens the teeth, there being washed and rubbed with a
cloth dipped in water of juice thereof. The powder stauncheth the blood that
floweth out of the nose, being applied to the place. I comforteth the stomach;
the broth of the herb, otherwise called the decoction drank in wine, is good for
an evil stomach; it helpeth a weak stomach and causeth appetite to meat; also
the wine wherein it has been boiled, doth cleanse and mundify the infected
stomach.

The powder thereof eaten with honey, or drank in wine, doth ripen and
digest cold phlegm, purgeth and bringeth up that which is in the breast,
scouring the same of gross humours, and causeth to breathe more easily. The herb
chewed in the mouth, healeth the stench of breath. It helpeth the heart; the
powder being taken before a man is infected, preserveth him from the pestilence;
and a dram of it, or a walnut shell full, taken immediately after he feeleth
infected, expelleth the venom of the pestilent infection from the heart, for if
that man sweateth afterwards, he may be preserved; the same effect hath the herb
boiled in wine, or in the urine of a health man child, drank; I mean the
decoction or liquor from the which the herb is strained, after that it hath been
boiled therein."

"Galen commended garden carrots highly to break wind, yet experience teacheth
that they breed it first; and we may thank nature for expelling it, not they."

I suppose the seeds of them perform this better than the roots; and though
Galen commended garden Carrots highly to break wind, yet experience teacheth
they breed it first, and we may thank nature for expelling it, not they; the
seeds of them expel wind indeed, and so mend what the root marreth.

William Coles - Adam in Eden, the History of Plants - 1651

Coles mentions six sorts of carrots -

Common yellow; sowne by Gardiners in every country.

Wild Carrots; groweth in most places of this land as well as in pastures
and sides of fields and untilled places.

Wild Carrots of Naples; Prickly Carrots of Naples; both grown in Naples

Wild Carrots; with hairy stalkes; grow in Germany

The true Dauke of Candy; groweth in Candie (modern day Crete)

"The wild Carrot (which is more use in Physick, though lesse knowne than the
common sort) groweth in a manner like that of the Garden, but that the leaves
are whiter and rougher. The root is small, long and hard, being also somewhat
sharp and strong, and therefore unfit for Meat.

The seeds are carminative, that is, powerful to expell wind, and therefore they
are very effectual to ease the torments and gripings of the Belly, and to cure
the Collick, but especially that of the Dauke of Candy. The seed of the
true Daucus is very usefull to help Strangury (painful, frequent urination of
small volumes), to provoke Urine and Womens courses, to expell the Dead
birth, and to help the strangling of the Mothers, and remove those stitches
which affect the sides."

Coles continues to list the ailments which carrots can deal with including
tumours, swellings, bites of venomous beasts, inveterate coughs, wind, dropsy,
eaten with beef to stir up the appetite, consumption and Venery. He also
describes carrots being buttered and ate on Wednesdayes and Fridayes when hot
meat is not familiarly provided. He tends to speak of carrots and parsnips as
having the same qualities.

1665 saw the publication of The Compleat Herball by Robert Lovell of Oxford
containing "the summe of ancient and moderne authors, based on observations
from the Physick garden in Oxford." This again appears to be a
reworking of earlier works with a few enhancements. An extract from the work
is given here (pdf).

"The carrot is red and yellow. The root of the yellow is
temperately hot and something moist, of little nourishment, and that not
very good, it's not so windie as the turnep, nor passeth so soon through
the belly. The red is of like faculty, the seed of both is hot and dry.
The seed breaketh and consumeth windiness and provoketh urine, as that of
the wild carrots. The root is usually boyled with fat flesh and eaten."

Robert Billing, Farmer, An Account of the Culture of Carrots and
their in feeding and fattening cattle, November 1764. This document gives a
detailed description of experiments in farming techniques (sowing, soil,
harvesting, timing) to find the ideal carrots to feed to cattle. A fascinating
insight into farming in the 18th century. He organised 24 and a half
acres to the production of carrots in 1764. He describes the earth a loamy
brick with cold sand and a touch gravely!

"I have found the best method of drawing carrots to be a four tined fork
with which a man breaks the ground, six or eight inches deep very carefully
without injuring the carrot; and is followed by a little boy who gathers the
carrots and throws them in heaps."

"I gave sixteen horses two loads of carrots every week, and these two loads,
I compute saved me more than a load of hay; this saving was for 28 weeks so
it saved me 28 loads of hay which at 25 shillings a load, saved me £35. To
this I might add the benefit received by the swine to whom I threw all the
tops and tails of the carrots fed to the horses, and they throve exceedingly
and they were so fond o them I could never find and dirt that might stick to
them."

He concludes: " Thus I have a given a material and exact account of every
material circumstance that has occurred to me in the culture and use of
carrots; for the feeding of cattle. I am sensible than more extraordinary,
and I have been careful to avoid exaggeration. The large amount of carrots I
have grown in this year have given me the opportunity of judging fully and
without any danger of considerable fallacy, what may be expected from the
common use of carrots in feeding every species of cattle on them."

The document goes on to tell us that it was witnessed as a true account by John Franklin, Vicar.

Henry Phillips -
History of
cultivated vegetables 1822 (pdf
extract here) gives an excellent summary of the history of carrots as
known at the time, reviewing what the Greeks and Romans said, then
commenting on the contribution of the herbalists to the knowledge of carrot
and its medicinal uses, in particular Gerard and Parkinson.

"The ancients used the seed both of the wild and the cultivated
carrot, as an internal medicine against the bite of serpents ; they also
gave it to animals that had been stung by them ; a dram weight in wine was
thought a sufficient dose.

The roots of the garden carrots are
now much used as a poultice for running cancers, etc. Sugar is found
in this root, but in less quantities than in the parsnip, or the beet. A
very good spirit may be distilled from carrots. An acre of these roots,
allowing the produce to be twenty tons, will produce 240 gallons of
spirits, which is considerably more than can be obtained from five
quarters of barley.

Dr. James says, carrots are one of the most considerable culinary
roots ; that they strengthen and fatten the body, and are a very proper
food for consumptive persons. They are somewhat flatulent, but are thought
to render the body soluble, and to contribute to the cure of a cough.

Carrots are generally served to table with boiled meats : they make
an excellent soup, and form an agreeable pudding. In some parts of the
country they are sent to table with fish of every description.

Helmont informs us, that he knew a gentleman who was seized with a
fit of the stone every fifteen days, freed from the attacks of his
disorder for several years, by means of an infusion of carrot-seed in
clear malt liquor. An infusion of them in white wine is excellent in
hysterical complaints."

A Catalogue of Seeds, Plants &c Sold by Will’m: Lucas
att the Naked Boy near Strand Bridge London (C. 1677) - Carrots, red, orang and yellow. (note: orang is how it was spelled)
(full list here)

A Modern Herbal, first published in 1931, by Mrs. M.
Grieve, an English Horticulturist, contains Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic
and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-Lore of Herbs. Full digital
version available
here.

"Parts Used Medicinally---The whole herb, collected in July;
the seeds and root. The whole herb is the part now more generally in use.

---Medicinal Action and Uses---Diuretic, Stimulant, Deobstruent. An
infusion of the whole herb is considered an active and valuable remedy in
the treatment of dropsy, chronic kidney diseases and affections of the
bladder. The infusion of tea, made from one ounce of the herb in a pint of
boiling water, is taken in wineglassful doses. Carrot tea, taken night and
morning, and brewed in this manner from the whole plant, is considered
excellent for lithic acid or gouty disposition. A strong decoction is very
useful in gravel and stone, and is good against flatulence. A fluid extract
is also prepared, the dose being from 1/2 to 1 drachm.

The seeds are carminative, stimulant and very useful in flatulence, windy
colic, hiccough, dysentery, chronic coughs, etc. The dose of the seeds,
bruised, is from one-third to one teaspoonful, repeated as necessary. They
were at one time considered a valuable remedy for calculus complaints. They
are excellent in obstructions of the viscera, in jaundice (for which they
were formerly considered a specific), and in the beginnings of dropsies, and
are also of service as an emmenagogue. They have a slight aromatic smell and
a warm, pungent taste. They communicate an agreeable flavour to malt liquor,
if infused in it while in the vat, and render it a useful drink in scorbutic
disorders.

Old writers tell us that a poultice made of the roots has been found to
mitigate the pain of cancerous ulcers, and that the leaves, applied with
honey, cleanse running sores and ulcers. An infusion of the root was also
used as an aperient."